This invention relates to devices, or apparatuses for transporting, storing and dispensing wire from substantially cylindrical or tubular containment or carrier structures. This invention also relates to wire-containing or transporting apparatuses or carriers and in particular, a carrier for guidewires having delicate extreme distal ends or tips.
Guidewires have been described in a number of patents, representative examples of which are U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,390 to Leary, U.S. Pat. No. 3,973,556 to Fleischhacker et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,622 to Samson et al. Guidewires have many different structural features and configurations depending upon the medical procedure with which they are to be used. Generally speaking, guidewires are used in the process of directing a catheter to identified locations or sites within a patient's cardiovascular or peripheral vascular system for the purpose of diagnosis or treatment. Typically, the guidewire is placed percutaneously into a patient's blood vessel and is directed to a previously identified site. A catheter selected to provide the particular medical procedure at the site then is advanced over the guidewire until the functional structure, working surface or operating portion of the catheter is located in the proximity of the previously identified site. The catheter then is utilized to accomplish the selected medical procedure. The guidewire may be withdrawn from the vascular system before, during, or after utilization of the catheter.
A typical example of the above process would be to utilize a guidewire to direct an angiographic catheter to a site of a vascular obstruction. Thereafter an angioplasty procedure, e.g., balloon angioplasty, may be carried out by means of, e.g., a balloon angioplasty catheter. Other catheters are designed to perform procedures such as application of ultrasound to an obstruction, delivery of drugs, execution of therapeutic or diagnostic procedures, or any of a number of applications of drugs, energy or other forces, generally less invasively, within the body.
The present invention is intended to be used with essentially all guidewires. However, this invention is particularly applicable to the containment, transportation, and dispensing of guidewires in a coiled tubular dispenser assembly or carrier where the extreme distal end or tip of the guidewire is of a sufficiently delicate or complicated structure to require protection from damage during handling. A guidewire tip also may be intentionally maintained outside the carrier, e.g., a J-tip or hooked guidewire where straightening and holding the “J” in a tubular carrier could reduce or inhibit its “memory” to return to a “J” configuration.
For reasons of device protection, ease of handling and dispensing, and fluid flushing, guidewires tend to be stored and transported in tubular dispenser assemblies, carriers, or containers. Generally speaking, the tubular dispenser assembly or loop of tubing will have a substantially larger inside diameter than the outside diameter of a guidewire contained therein. To utilize a guidewire contained within such an assembly in a medical procedure, the guidewire must be partially and ultimately, totally removed therefrom.
During the transportation and handling of guidewires contained within a shipping or dispenser assembly, a problem has sometimes developed in that at least the guidewire tip may migrate or emerge from the dispenser. The tip of a guidewire can be relatively structurally fragile, comprising core/coil bonds, bulbous tip (usually) and exhibiting a tendency or memory tending to curve, cf. U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,573.
Whether having a tendency to curve or not, the extreme distal tip may project from the carrier assembly. In such instances, it is desirable to protect the guidewire distal tip from being bent or otherwise damaged during shipping, storage and use.
The present invention provides an apparatus for protecting a wire, particularly a guidewire distal end extending from a tubular, elongate, or cylindrical transfer, transportation, or carrier assembly e.g., a carrier tube having where at least a partial segment of the wire or guidewire projects from the carrier at any time during its manufacture, shipping, storage, or use.